The Whistler Film Festival Announces 2012 Program

The Whistler Film Festival (November 28 to December 2, 2012) is proud to announce its 2012film lineup featuring original films from around the world and more feature premieres than ever before. Under WFF’s new Director ofProgramming, Paul Gratton, the festival’s Programming Team has curated a stimulating lineup that honours established programareas, while adding some brand new strands sure to broaden the Festival’s reach, and geared to a wide variety of tastes.

This year, festival goers can look forward to over 75 films, selected from over 800 submissions, including 42 features and 34 shorts,exhibited on 5 screens in 4 theatre venues over 5 days. The feature program includes an unprecedented 6 World Premieres, 1North American Premiere, 6 Canadian Premieres, 5 English Canadian Premieres, 15 Western Canadian Premieres, 4 BritishColumbian Premieres, and 1 Whistler Premiere.

“Choosing a movie for a film festival is like buying a Christmas gift after a lot of thought and consideration, and having to waitimpatiently until it’s unveiled on the night of its official premiere,ai??? says Paul Gratton, WFF’s Director of Programming. ai???Theprogramming team at Whistler is excited and eager to see how audiences will respond to our selections this year, which we thinkcan best be described as being ai???cool’ movies. We are particularly proud that only eight of our 40 plus titles were also unspooled atTIFF, which indicates that we are succeeding in carving out a distinct niche for Whistler amidst the plethora of film festivals thatcurrently dot the media landscape.

“Canadian writer and director Michael McGowan’s STILL (Western Canadian Premiere) is this year’s WFF Opening Night Galapresentation, an inspirational film based on the true story of 88 year old Craig Morrison, who took on the bureaucrats and thechallenges of building a home from scratch with equal aplomb. This is the second time that one of McGowan’s films has opened thefest (One Week in 2008) and the third time one of his films has screened at Whistler (Saint Ralph in 2004). WFF’s Closing NightGala film is the World Premiere of THE SHEEPDOGS HAVE AT IT by Canadian director, John Barnard and featuringSaskatchewan rock band The Sheepdogs.

Additional World Premieres include: BIRD CO. MEDIA by Vancouver director Jason Bourque, THE MOVIE OUT HERE directed byDavid Hicks, MAD SHIP directed by David Mortin, STATUS QUO? directed by Karen Cho; and TEMPTING FEAR directed by MikeDouglas.

For Festival passes, tickets and more information, go to www.whistlerfilmfestival.com